1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for determining a load of clothes or material in a rotary drum and a washing and/or drying machine using this process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Up to present clothes washing and/or drying machines have known different steps in the automatic operation thereof First of all, they were semi-automatic, then automatic with an electro-mechanical programmer with which a choice of program may be made among a limited number of predetermined programs, finally automatic with optimum operating program determined by programming a device such as a microprocessor from data supplied by the user concerning the clothes, such as the weight or the mass of clothes, the type of clothes, the degree of dirtiness, the temperature etc . . . . The constraints imposed on the user in controlling the machines have proved numerous. Frequently, since he does not have a weighing means available, the user indicates to these machines an approximative weight of clothes which sometimes diverges greatly from its real weight. Inexact data input into the machines greatly compromises the result to be expected from an optimum program for operation thereof since, for a mass of a given type of clothes and a given degree of dirtiness, optimum washing or rinsing of the clothes normally requires at least a predetermined amount of water for each bath, a pre-established temperature of the washing bath, previously chosen energy for agitation, a scheduled intensity of rinsing (number of baths), a preselected intensity of spin drying (spin drying time and speed). Optimal drying of the clothes usually requires a selected drying temperature and a predetermined duration of this operation.
In a washing and/or drying machine, the clothes mass data associated with that of the type of clothes (cotton material, towelling, synthetic material etc . . . ) leads to a well known clothes load data. This clothes load data corresponds as a whole to the percentage of the volume of the drum occupied by the clothes during operation of the machine. Knowledge of this clothes load data is indispensable for correct determination of the parameters recalled above concerning operation of the machine, in particular of the water levels required for each bath for washing or rinsing this clothes load. The higher this load of clothes, the higher the level of water in the tank of the machine required for washing and rinsing it or the longer the drying period.
To obtain good washing and/or drying results, the user must necessarily give precise indications to the machine.